


Drinking Flowers

by Jazzy_Kandra



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson, SANDERSON Brandon - Works, The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: F/M, Gen, I might post another chapter, Spoilers for Bands of Mourning and Secret History
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 09:38:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13097373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jazzy_Kandra/pseuds/Jazzy_Kandra
Summary: After returning to the Physical Realm, Kelsier drinks his first glass of real wine. He still can’t believe they drink flowers.Post-Catacendre. Part of the Mistshot series. Ficlet.





	Drinking Flowers

Mist swirled outside this night, thick as a blanket, almost like those nights back in Luthadel before the fall of the Final Empire. It called to him, though he did not answer it. Instead, he stayed inside Breeze’s ‘manor’ - though it was more like a two story house with six rooms. It was better than what most had in Elendel, many still lived in squat shacks and cabins, only a few, like Breeze, Spook, and Ham, had houses like this one. None of the others in his former crew, however, had a spare room for a long-term guest to stay in. Spook had three children, with another on the way. Ham’s wife had given birth to two more since the Catacendre.

It was a wonder that the Ladrians only had one child, a little girl. She was the oldest of the group, some five years of age with her father’s dark hair and her mother’s blue eyes. Despite being noble, Valette Ladrian was a nice kid–just like her parents.

Sometimes, Kelsier wonder  _what_  his old-self would think of him now. Staying with nobles he would’ve once killed, studying a book Khriss had given him on the basics of Realmatic Theory and Investiture, never going out… Old-Kelsier would’ve decked him.

_Once thief, turned Mistborn assassin, turned prophet, turned god, and now, just some kind of damn scholar…_ he thought, flipping the page. He scribbled a note down on the sheet beside the book.  _Men play many different roles in their lives, Kell_.

Or death, in his case.

“I’d probably have killed  _me_ ,” he muttered, looking out towards the swirling mists. He longed to go out in them; to Push and Pull through the swirling mist, train Spook to be a proper Mistborn, dance with his dau–. “You can’t go out yet. You know that, get back to studying.”

_And she’d say you have nothing better to do_. Khriss was right, of course. She had also bluntly informed him that if he wanted  _help_  from her friends in Silverlight with saving those in the South, he’d need to understand this stuff. It was…still hard. Why did Roshar require Stormlight, a form of Investiture, to manifest objects in the Cognitive Realm while Scadrial didn’t? Manifestation of Souls in the Cognitive Realm was the topic of this chapter, and, admittedly, it boggled his mind.

“Still studying, I see,” Breeze said from behind him, making him jump slightly. Rust and Ruin, why wasn’t he burning tin…? Trying to cover his surprise, Kelsier glanced over his should and back at the man. He saw him mostly outlined in blue, lines pointing to even the most minute sources of metal. Breeze held something in his arms. A bottle of wine perhaps?

Breeze crossed the dining room floor, passing from one visual field to the other. He stopped in front of the fireplace, the dim fire within casting an orange grow upon him. In that dim light, Kelsier could pretend his friend hadn’t aged in the ten years since he’d died. Breeze’s hair was still black and not peppered with grey, his face less wrinkled, and he wasn’t nearly fifty. Then Breeze stoked the flame, dissolving the illusion like mist burned up at dawn. Again, his friend was old, grayed haired, and plump; it still surprised him to see how much his friends had aged…

“Reading by candlelight…are you  _trying_ to ruin what remains of your eyesight, Kell?” Breeze asked, stepping up to the table. He poured himself and Kelsier a glass of wine. “And yours was never the best to begin with.”

Kelsier ignored the jab, instead taking the glass of wine with a wordless nod of thanks. It had a dark reddish tinge, like wine fermented with rhubarb…?  _But_ … He sniffed it.  _That smell…_

_“_ It’s very good,” said the nobleman, taking a seat at the table.

Kelsier finally took a sip. It tasted off.

“What…what is this shit?” Kelsier asked, frowning down at the glass filled with deep, red liquid.  
  
It was different than traditional wines created in the World of Ash, which  were made from roots and vegetables.This beverage, however, had a decidedly… He took another sip. Non-carroty. Nor did it taste like beets or rhubarb. No, there was a certain acidic tartness that he couldn’t quite place. He’d never had anything quite like it. (1)

”It’s made from grapes,” Breeze said. “Why? You act like you’ve never had wine before, good man!”

He rolled his eye. Unfortunately, that made the world spin…blue lines and normal vision swirling together into a spiral blur. He would  _not_ fall again, especially not out of his chair. Instead, he gripped the edge of the chair with his free hand, waiting for the episode of dizziness passed. Was he  _never_ going to get used to this?

Breeze started to stand, but Kelsier waved one hand at him dismissively.

“I’ve almost forgotten how stubborn you are.”

Kelsier gave him a half-smile. It felt forced. “Really?”

Breeze sighed, resting a hand on his ripe gut. The man had certainly gotten more plump in recent years. “No.”

“My memories are mostly in tact,” Kelsier said, taking another sip…and grimaced, putting it aside. “No need to worry about that.”

”Ah,” Breeze said. “So you’ve claimed, Kell…but you don’t remember grapes…?” 

”We didn’t have grapes.”

“Yes, but you could see this world from that other Realm.” Breeze took the bottle of wine and poured himself another glass. He actually liked this stuff? “Weren’t you paying attention?”

“I had other things to occupy me…”

“I suppose that’s one way to put it.”

A silence followed. The crew had all decided to avoid that topic. For some reason, Hemalurgy made them uncomfortable, despite that Ruin was now a part of Harmony. They had mostly used Inquisitor spikes, it wasn’t like they’d killed anyone that hadn’t deserved it…those two men had been set to be executed anyways.

“Grapes come from flowers.”

“ _Flowers?”_ Halfway to his lips, he dropped his glass in alarm. The glass shattered against the floor. “We’re drinking bloody flowers?”  
  
Breeze chuckled. That was almost as strange as chewing grass…and he’d only done that  _twice_ since coming back.

“Indeed, good man!” Breeze said, sounding quite pleased with himself. Typical nobleman. “Their fruit, at least. You’ll have to venture out to my orchids one of these days. Soon. Once…well…”

“Once I stop tripping over my own feet.”

“I wouldn’t put it like that.”

Kelsier nodded. They all acted like this, Ham, Breeze, Spook, and their wives… Oddly overprotective with a side of tiptoeing around the issue. It was somehow both endearing and infuriating.

“Tomorrow.”

“Are you certain?” Those words had an undercurrent of “are you ready?”. Doubt. The last time Kelsier had left the house to escort Allrianne on a shopping trip to pick out some new clothes, he’d landed face first in a mud puddle and Breeze’s little girl had helped him back up. That had been more than a little embarrassing.

Kelsier folded his arms. He would do this. He needed to. “Of course.”

“After all,” he said. “I’ve been stuck in the same damn house for weeks.”

—

(1) All these things grow in the ground since Era 1 plants bore no flowers thus no  _real_ fruit. I think that Scadrian rhubarb would’ve had thicker stalks, leaves, and etc., but it’s likely something they used for wine (and it’s sweet enough that most people think of it as fruit, even in the real world!)


End file.
